1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a network management method applied to a communications network system, such as a public telephone network and a data communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a conventional communication network system comprises a plurality of nodes each having a switching function and terminal equipments (TEs). The system further comprises a network management system to monitor traffic status of network communications and to manage establishment of roundabout routes. The network management system is then connected to each node via a control line, and the management of the network communication is performed via the control lines. For that reason, it is unavoidable to increase the number of control lines and control information in proportion to the number of nodes. Accordingly, the increase in the control information is a burden to the network management system, and the total traffic on the conventional communication network system also increases.
Furthermore, it is feared that the conventional communication network system can not accept new communication technology or cope with new communication service. For example, it has been developed that a node executes a program appended to a received user packet to assist transferring operations. If the program commands that the node makes a plurality of replicas of the user packet and transfers the replicas to a plurality of nodes respectively, the network management system can not manage traffic congestion on the conventional communication network system. As a result, the whole communication on the communication network system would become unusable.